Painting Class - A Feysand Fic
by Eliniei
Summary: Inspired from a late night conversation between a friend and a headcanon formed on Tumblr. Years after the events of ACOWAR, Feyre has opened a painting studio that offers free classes to the citizens of Velaris. Rhys offers to take over her High Lady duties for the night so she can teach, but decides to do something a little more mischievous.


"I'm heading to the shop," Feyre announced over Rhys's shoulder as she was bent over, checking her reflection in the mirror he was sitting in front of. She tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear and kissed his temple, inhaling his scent.

Her mate let out a long, exaggerated sigh as she straightened. "I _suppose_ I can cover for you at the meeting again." He turned to face her, casually leaning against her vanity and crossing his arms.

She rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue.

"After all, I am _so good_ to you."

"Hmm…" Feyre flicked his nose and watched his face wrinkle. "Rhysand is the most humble High Lord," she recited.

Rhys let out a breath of a laugh and sat up straight again.

"Alright, darling. I will probably be back late. I'll make sure to let you know what decisions we come to."

With one last smile, only for him, she send a loving stroke down their bond and slipped out of the room. The long plait of her braid bounced against her back as she hopped down the stairs to the sitting room and walked out the front door.

A cool summer breeze blew past, ruffling the skirt of her purple, knee-length, flare dress and pulling the loose strands of hair over her forehead. She paused a moment, taking in the sunset looming over the city. _Her_ city.

The colors.

The smells.

The people. The wonderful people.

A light, giddy feeling spread throughout her body. It had all been worth it. Every moment.

"Miss Feyre, you'll be late!" came an excited shout from down the street and drew her attention away from the past. She smiled again and hurried down the street to join the children as they quibbled over who would hold their teacher's hands on the way to class.

As her patrons started piling into the large, multi-room studio and shop, the High Lady slipped her paint-splattered apron over her head and began setting up a simple still life of fruits and tableware. A typical starting point, she had quickly learned.

When Feyre had finished setting the subject up to her liking, she spun around to face her class with a warm smile on her face.

As soon as he had heard the front door close, Rhysand went to the window to see his mate walk down the street.

Everything about her was amazing. How did he ever get so lucky?

He watched as she took the hands of the children around her with a bright smile on her face and ushered them to their painting lesson.

Once she was out of sight, he also left the townhouse and headed in the same direction but stayed a healthy distance away. Many of his citizens bowed their heads in respect and he stopped to greet them with a handshake as he made his way to the Rainbow.

Even from a few blocks away, Rhys could hear the merry chatter coming from inside her shop. His lips twitched upwards at the sound.

A few of the faeries in the back rows turned their heads towards him when he tried to sneak into the corner of the studio. He lifted a finger to his lips to ensure their silence and gave them a wink. They nodded and turned around, trying extremely hard to conceal the grins already plastered onto their faces while a student to the High Lord's left passed him a large canvas and offered to share his paint.

Rhys picked up a stick of charcoal and began sketching his subject.

An hour into the lesson, Feyre was a colorful mess. She had paint up to her elbows and had accidentally let the end of her braid dip into her pallette as she bent over to mix colors. She'd even somehow managed to get a swipe of blue paint on her calf and a splatter of white on her sandaled feet.

For the last few minutes, she had been slowly making her way from student to student, loosely critiquing and complementing their work. Although she had been giving lessons for a few years now, it always felt strange telling others where they needed improvement. Thankfully, they had taken her advice willingly.

Midway through her second row of students, Feyre moved to rub away some paint that was making her nose itch when she caught the whiff of something unexpected.

Instantly, her eyes started darting around the room until they landed on the male halfway hidden behind his easel in the back corner of the room. Her favorite wicked grin was peeking around the side as he painted. She huffed a laugh and couldn't help but smile, but continued on with her class, deliberately leaving him for last.

As she finally progressed to him, she forced her face into a neutral expression.

"I see, High Lord, that you are indeed occupied with incredibly important meetings all evening."

He heard a few of the students around him snicker at her comment. His grin widened.

When it was finally his turn, Feyre came around to view what he had painted.

Rhys watched with amusement as her eyes grew wide and her mouth parted in shock. She let out a small, surprised gasp.

It took everything in him not to throw his head back and laugh at her reaction. Instead, he raised an eyebrow and looked up at her.

 _What's wrong? Tonight's subject wasn't the naked form?_

He looked back at his painting and sighed dramatically, slumping back into his chair.

 _What a shame. I can't seem to get this image out of my head…_

He projected an image of her in their bedroom last night into her head. Rhys looked back up at his mate to see a slight red hue spread across her cheeks.

Instead of reprimanding him as she usually would do, Feyre simply gave him a broad smile and pointed to a part of his work.

"Trying shading in these areas here," she said as she moved her hand around the canvas, and bent over to get close to his ear. "It looks like my ass is blending into my thighs." The breath of her whisper on his skin made bumps rise on his arms. He huffed a laugh. She nuzzled his ear with her nose and glided back towards her own painting at the front of the class.

Since the end of class was fast approaching, Feyre stood away from her painting and asked for the attention of her class.

"It's that time of night, everyone," she said, looking over all of the students. "The floor is open for anyone who would like to show their work while we are cleaning up. As always, no one is obliged to do share."

The sounds of the faeries scurrying to clean up their workstations filled the room. No one came up to share their work, and as they left, they gave their High Lady a slight inclination of the head and wished her a good night before hurrying out the door.

When nearly everyone had left, she crossed her hands over her chest and looked across the room at Rhys. He stood out of his corner and stalked over to her.

"So what about that important meeting?" she asked and leaned into him as he snaked his arm around her waist.

With a snap of his fingers, the front doors locked and the blinds snapped shut. He smiled and kissed the top of her head.

"You were my important meeting," he confessed, and winnowed home.


End file.
